A/N: This pairing idea was given to me by thetimewalker2237. Thanks again for the idea, and I hope you like how it turned out! ^^ Sorry it took awhile, I was trying to finish the one before this.

7: Resourceful Rosemary and Ginger

Goose

"Oink. Oink…"

There was a paper pig inching across his notes of Soul Perception abilities and how to broaden one's skills.

"Caw! Caw!"

Oh, great. A crow had joined them.

Oxford's left eyebrow twitched above the rim of his glasses.

"Grawwr!"

Ah, wonderful… Now an alligator of some sort had joined in.

"Oink. Oi-squeeal!"

And now the alligator was devouring the pig…

"Um… excuse me, but what are you doing?" Ox inquired, pushing his glasses up his nose and turning to the weapon to his right. Sitting beside him, arms outstretched across the desk and on his test taking notes, Patty gave a timid smile, finishing up her business of brutally tearing the pig's paper head from its delicately folded body.

He'd just been studying his notes for the umpteenth time, preparing for a wicked test coming next class period, and before he'd known it, one of the partner's of Lord Death's son had stationed herself next to him and had begun creating Noah's Paper Ark all over his stacks of notes and text books.

As the dark crow dive-bombed what was left of the mutilated paper pig, Patty answered, "I was bored by the others. Maka's busy studying and hitting Soul upside the head because he's teasing her, Big Sis is trying to calm Kid because Black Star's bothering him by drawing unsymmetrical in his notebooks with Sharpie. Tsubaki's trying to get Black Star to stop."

Ox turned his head to the chaos going on a few seats above his head. As he'd suspected, exactly what Patty had described was taking place, only Maka was now Maka-Chopping both Soul and Black Star, eyes narrowed demonically as both boys cowered under her fierce gaze and murderous aura.

"And you thought you'd sit by me because…?" Ox inquired curiously, turning back to Patty who had been busy making what looked like a paper monkey and a buffalo.

"You looked too serious," Patty giggled, having the buffalo charge Ox's perfectly sharpened pencil. "I thought you looked like you could use some fun."

"I thank you for your concern, but I can assure you I'm just fine," Ox replied, waving a dismissive hand at the buffalo and returned to jotting down the different levels of a soul wavelength. "You can go back to your meister and other friends."

Patty didn't seem at all deterred by his disinterest, nor did she catch his hint about wanting her to leave him alone. Slowly, she inched a rapidly folded piranha across the sheet he studied avidly, hissing in a low voice, "I will eat your fingers!"

Ox glanced at the crazy girl, and then at the piranha with rather menacing looking teeth. With a sigh, he inquired, "Is that so? What will I write with?"

"Your toes!" Patty giggled. "And then Mr. Piranha will eat those, too."

"What will I write with then?" Ox questioned, carefully erasing a few notes.

"You'll hold your pencil in your teeth!"

Ox nodded absentmindedly, cracking open another text book and flipping through the pages, while beside him, Patty watched with bright eyes. After a few seconds, the meister saw the demon pistol stand in the corner of his eye before turning and clambering over the empty desks to where her friends sat.

He didn't watch her go, thinking she'd most likely gain interest in him again and return with her quickly growing circus. Instead, he looked over to where she'd just been sitting, noticing she'd taken her crayons and paper with her, but had left her paper animals.

Carefully, he lifted the alligator to inspect her handiwork. It was quite detailed, from it's beady eyes and long snout to every last spike down its long, pointy tail.

With a small smile, Ox put the animals in a small pile beside his notes and returned to his peaceful studying.

He'd only been sitting there for about a minute, noticing the arguing and fighting above him had grown strangely quiet, when suddenly, out of nowhere, a shrill cry rang out, and a monstrous shadow fell over him. With barely anytime to register what was happening, Ox had raised his head just a few inches when the owner of the shadow fell on him, knocking him forward across the desk.

The attacker wasn't very heavy, but it startled him all the same. As he quickly bolted upright, the assailant slid down in the seat beside his on its back. Its legs were suspended in the air and its mouth was open revealing huge, jagged teeth and a lolling red tongue.

Ox blinked, looking mystified. A paper green dragon. He'd just been assaulted by a fat, paper dragon bigger than himself.

Above his head, he heard laughter from Maka and the others, the loudest of it all coming from, as he suspected, Patty. Narrowing his eyes at her, the girl giggled even louder. With a wide smile, she slid down from the desk she was sitting on and hopped down the rows until she was beside him again. Lifting the green dragon above her head, she declared, "This is Fred the Mauling Dragon! You have been mauled!"

Ox didn't say a word.

-/-\-|-/-\-

Only ten more minutes until the bell, and then Ox would escape. There was no use trying to study now, not with a family of paper rabbits, three cows, a life sized chicken, the looming Fred, and the animals from before all over his notes.

As Patty did a reenactment of a bull fight, using the buffalo and the family of rabbits, Ox closed his text book quietly and murmured, "Why aren't you studying for the test next hour?"

Patty gave him a strange look before replying, "What for?"

Ox tried not looking too appalled and inched his glasses up his nose, saying, "Well, for starters, you won't get a good score if you don't know what's what. Unless, of course, you do know!" he added hastily when Patty tilted her head to the side. "Even if you know it all, it's still prudent to study."

"Kid never studies," Patty said quietly, looking puzzled, and Ox wanted to say her meister didn't need to because he never got to the first question. The only thing he ever answered was his name, and even then it was questionable if he'd succeed.

"Well, he should," Ox replied instead, turning a little to face the blond haired student. "By studying, you get good grades, and you feel… proud of yourself. You could be the top of your class, like me."

"I thought Maka was at the top of the class," Patty spoke up, one eyebrow raised.

Ox grit his teeth together and whispered in a strained voice, "Maka may be at the top of the class now, but we know she can't keep the position for long. I'll have to step in sooner or later."

Patty smiled a fraction, and the meister in front of her continued, explaining, "Wouldn't you like to have knowledge, like myself? Wouldn't you like the feeling of… accomplishment, every day?"

"I made all these." Patty lifted two rabbits and the crow into the air with her left hand, motioning to the rest with her other. "I accomplished something."

"Yes, but they don't exactly help you in school," Ox replied with a tight smile. "By studying, you can make your classmates proud, your teachers proud. You can feel good about yourself knowing you're going to ace the test as soon as it's handed out."

The prodigy meister was now twitching uncontrollably, looking quite distraught, and Patty leaned back a few inches.

"You can make your parents proud, too," Ox muttered, although now it seemed directed more to himself than to the girl. "You can finally give them something to compliment. They'll be happy you're at the top of your class, being one of the finest meisters in the Academy. They won't greet you when you come home with disappointed eyes and say, "Ox, honey, can't you do better than a ninety-nine? Well, Mother, I try my hardest, but if I actually get praise for ninety-nines, maybe I'll feel motivation to do better!"

By now, Patty wasn't particularly paying attention to what the student was saying, but was slowly cutting out small paper strips from two white and orange papers.

"And my father," Ox ranted on, not even registering how loud he was speaking or that he'd lost his audience of one, only to gain the rest of the classroom. "He won't acknowledge my presence until I have the best Death Scythe, and I'm over the entire class. He just watches me through his dark glasses and somewhat non-existing eyes, and I can feel his shame. It's not like I need soul perception to know his discontentment towards my entire life!"

Patty hummed to herself quietly, glancing over at Ox once when he threw his hands in the air, emphasizing his words before he turned on the demon pistol. "So, do you see why studying is so important?" he demanded. "Do you see why I need to do this? Why you need to do this? You must study to become smarter, stronger, and a better meister or weapon, to make your parents proud!"

The meister apparently seemed to have forgotten how the rest of Patty's family consisted only of her sister, but he continued on hysterically. "Do you see what you could be? Do you see the importance of it all?"

Beside him, Patty blinked her large blue eyes once before lifting a brand new, white paper goose in front of Ox's nose. "Goose."

Ox's face hit the desk.

-/-\-|-/-\-

98.

In fat, ugly ink, those were the numbers written there on the top of his paper: 98.

His score on the exam.

With a sigh, Ox wasn't sure if he blamed himself and his lack of focus; Patty, because she tore his focus away from his notes; or the fact he had an emotional breakdown and was not exactly prepared emotionally.

Another long exhale of breath and Ox shrugged slowly to himself. At least it was a ninety-eight and not something worse…

Instantly, just like before when Fred the Mauler had swooped in on him, two arms wrapped themselves tightly around Ox, hugging him, while in his ear, Patty's overly cheerful voice cried, "You got a ninety-eight Ox! I'm so proud of you!"

Turning slowly, Ox stared into Patty's blue eyes, about to overfill with happiness. With a slow smile, he said softly, "Thanks, Patty. It means a lot to me."

The demon pistol grinned, showing her white teeth before raising up the paper goose from before. "Goose."

Ox took the paper bird from her outstretched hand, rolling it over under his fingers with a feeling of satisfaction. On the left wing, scribbled in sloppy, definitely Patty handwriting, were the words Best Test Taker Ever!

When the meister looked up to thank Patty, the blond haired girl had already disappeared, though from up in the seats behind him, he heard her quiet, affectionate cheer. "Goose."

-/-\-|-/-\-

A/N: This one was fun to write, and my sister Autumnmobile12 gave me the idea for the ending. ^^